


white walls and a black ceiling

by perhapssoon



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Cryptor is a hard character to write, Multi, Other, i forgot how op the nindroids are if they’re not stupid, i had to rewatch the show for this, weird flashback things I don’t know has any significance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-13
Updated: 2018-07-17
Packaged: 2019-06-09 21:19:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15276402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perhapssoon/pseuds/perhapssoon
Summary: In an effort to help the general population, Cyrus Borg reprograms Cryptor and stations him as a guard for the Realm Crystal. No one anticipated that the ninja would find him, though Cryptor’s been having strange memories since his activation that he definitely doesn’t remember experiencing.





	1. snow and coal

**Author's Note:**

> This first chapter is set around season 5 and the rest of the story is around season 6 (or lack therof). This is basically “how much can I write before I get tired of this fic”

The man in front of him looks down at his paper, adjusting those obnoxiously large glasses.  "Cryptor, former general of the Nindroid Army, clone of Zane Julien."

Cryptor winces at the name 'Zane' but otherwise stays silent.

"Other nindroids have been sentenced to reprogramming by Cyrus Borg or the Kryptarium Prison.  The one nicknamed 'Mindroid' is now Borg's personal helper, with the help of a little tinkering in his code."

Cryptor doesn't know where this is going.  The man could be deliberately trying to provoke him, and it is working. His fists clench, straining against the cuffs that bind him to the chair.  They had disabled his laser optic as well as his cloaking device and his katanas were lost after Zane's death.

"Get on with it already," he growls.

The man seems unfazed and merely flips through the rest of the papers.  "Official info here, blah blah blah, more mentions of Zane Julien--"

Cryptor tunes him out, and suddenly, he's in a frozen wasteland, chair gone, cuffs gone, no civilization in sight.

_What the--_

There's a loud crack, like a gunshot, and the ground beneath him opens up, and he falls down into an icy cave.  His arm becomes dislodged and the rock he hits on the way down tears it free from its socket. Struggling to his feet, he instinctively reaches for his missing arm but when he brings it up to put it back into place, he can see that it looks shiny.  Which isn't an issue, but he can see his reflection in the metal. And his reflection is definitely not him. He recoils in shock.

_Zane?_

Almost as fast as he arrived, he comes back to reality, chained in a chair, listening to a man drone on about technical damages and charges that will be pressed against him. He's too confused to say anything else.  What happened? Why was he in Zane's body?

_Clone of Zane Julien._

The words float back to him, and he's struck with such sudden backlash that it nearly scares him.  He's a clone of Zane. Which means that he essentially _is_ Zane, with maybe a different personality and other features that differentiate the two but he is a copy of the original.  A clone.

"And that will be all.  A guard will take you to your cell."

Cryptor blinks, but the rest of the time passes in a blur.  Somehow, he ends up in a damp cell with a small barred window high above him and nothing else.  He would rage at being treated so poorly but he's too shaken to really process anything.

He keeps seeing his -- no, Zane's reflection in the metal, hear the crack of the ice beneath him, and feel the sensation of falling into the darkness. Falling falling...

No.  He shakes his head to clear it.  He isn't Zane. He's far from it.

 _Then why do you look so much like him?_ a voice whispers in the back of his mind. _You even acknowledged the fact that you are his clone, why do you expect yourself to be any different from him?_

 _Shut up_ , he tells himself, and is immediately disgusted.  He's never had to talk to himself, partially because the Overlord wouldn't let him.  Nor Pythor. And his troops would look at him like he was crazy and Cryptor was too proud for that.  It's too much of a _human_ thing to do, and he wouldn't stoop so low.  The only two he knew who actively did that were the former Borg assistant Pixal and -- Zane.

 _Zane_. The name resounds in his mind, threatening to overwhelm him.  He isn't Zane, he tells himself for perhaps the third time in the last twenty minutes.  Just a clone. He's just a clone, right?

 _You talk to yourself now?_ the voice jeers. _Stooping down to Zane's level, are we? From what I hear, he has mental voices too, little things that nag him, like the ninja. You're just like him._

Cryptor ignores the voice, but he knows that it is right, assuming the voice is part of him after all.

This can't be happening.  He's better than Zane, in all senses of a machine, the upgraded version: stronger, faster, smarter than the original.  And human antics are foreign to him. What humor is, how to properly talk to someone without killing them, experiencing actual feelings, talking to oneself.

It occurs to him that maybe it'd be better if he stays locked up.  He could be going crazy.

 _How can you go crazy if you're a nindroid?_ the voice asks pointedly. _Guess you're more human than we thought. Like Zane, but that could obviously just be a coincidence._

At the mention of Zane, Cryptor suddenly finds himself flying on some sort of dragon.  It's blue. But the fact that he's flying on a dragon makes him want to fling himself off into the ocean below him. He doesn't _have_ a dragon, other than that mechanical one that was destroyed along with the Overlord.

"Woah, Zane, you okay?" someone asks, and Cryptor turns his -- no, Zane's head to see Jay, the ninja of lightning, sitting atop his own dragon.  Cryptor realizes that he's surrounded by people he doesn't know, except for the ninja.

"I'm..fine?" The sentence comes out as a question because honestly, Cryptor doesn't know if he's okay. He shouldn't be here.  Shouldn't be doing this.

 _Look, you're so like Zane, you even have flashbacks to his memories,_ the voice chuckles.   _You learn something new everyday._

_If I jump off the dragon, will I die?_

"Zane, you hear me? You okay?" Jay asks again, eyes wide in concern. 

Instead of replying, Cryptor pushes himself off the dragon.  He lands on the concrete floor of his cell with a loud clang.  Realizing he may have used more force than necessary, he checks for dents but only finds that he made the concrete cave in around him. 

He couldn’t do that before, could he?

_You never tried._

Scratch his previous plan. He needs to get out of here. He hasn’t experienced any of this before coming to this stupid prison. 

Staggering to his feet, he raised his hands to freeze the outer wall to smash but nothing happened. A brief wave of panic washes over him. 

He doesn’t have his ice powers.

And then he’s struggling to concentrate, body sparking, and he falls to his knees in pain. _You aren’t Zane Julien. You have no ice powers. Get it together._

But it’s like his consciousness is merged with Zane’s now. Flashes of memories he has never experienced run through his head: sitting at the bottom of a frozen lake, using shurikens to dismember skeletons, a giant snake, Pixal, more Pixal, an underground cell, even more Pixal, large dragons, a building against gray skies with a girl standing in front of it, a figure in murky green water, water rising on its own, and Pixal. Pixal, Pixal, Pixal. Some slight romantic memories of her— no. Stop. _These aren’t his memories._

A guard appears in the doorway of the cell, taking in the damage done to the floor stoically. “Cyrus Borg has requested you to come to Borg Tower. I have been instructed to strip you of all possible weapons.”

“Well all of them have either been destroyed or disabled so go ahead,” Cryptor grumbles. There’s a distinct screeching noise in his ear that sounds suspiciously like a falcon but he can’t let the guard know anything. He feigns boredom. “What does Borg want with me anyway?”

“He wants to reprogram you to guard the Realm Crystal.”

No. He can’t be reprogrammed. Maybe his identity crisis might be solved but no way in the Sixteen Realms is he going to allow his whole personality, his memories — _him_ —  to be altered.

“I can’t be reprogrammed.”

The guard’s expression doesn’t change. “Strict orders. I’m sorry.”

He doesn’t look very sorry. 

A loud rumble suddenly blasts through his whole body and he barely identifies it as a motorcycle before the guard is dragging him down the hallway. 

He struggles, but the guard pins him to the ground and opens up his chest cavity and flips a switch. 

Everything goes black.

He wakes up in Borg Tower, at the top floor. Borg himself is sitting behind a desk, writing something on a pad of paper. It takes a moment for Cryptor to realize that he’s strapped to a table.

“Ah, you're awake,” Borg says, rolling over. “I’m truly sorry it had to come to this.”

At least he sounds a bit sympathetic. 

“You have no right,” is all Cryptor is able to growl before another one of his — no, Zane’s memories forces him to stay silent. 

“I know, and I apologize,” Borg says, something that looks like grief on his face.  “We simply cannot have you running around trying to kill everyone. Kryptarium Prison is unwilling to take you as they believe you will try to manipulate the remaining Nindroids to rebellion.”

“They’re not wrong,” Cryptor grumbles. With Zane’s memory of some magic sword and a chess set running through his head, it’s all he can do to _not_ succumb to the vision. “So I’ll be protecting your stupid Realm Crystal, I heard.”

Borg nods. “We need security, and you are our best choice for it.”

He should feel flattered but instead he feels a pit in the bottom of his nonexistent stomach. “I-I won’t have any memories left, would I?”

Borg shakes his head. “No. Everything will be erased. Some of your personality may stay but other than that, nothing will remain from your previous activation. You’ll be given general knowledge about yourself but that is all. Essentially, you are rebuilding your life.”

“Not that I had one anyway,” Cryptor replies, another one of Zane’s memories of Pixal consuming his mind. 

Borg looks a bit startled and a bit sad but he recovers quickly. “Well, I will commence the process right now if you’d like.”

“I’d rather you didn’t do it at all,” he says, and Borg shakes his head.

“The public is scared of you. It will only mean more trouble for you. If they see that you aren’t dangerous...”

It sounds violating to Cryptor but he has no other choice. Mentally killing himself, he finally nods. “Fine. Do whatever.”

Borg gives him a look of pity and Cryptor grimaces. “I do wish this had ended differently, Cryptor. I’m sorry.”

Borg’s hands reach into Cryptor’s chest and everything fizzes white before the nindroid shuts down. 

And, halfway across Ninjago, Zane’s systems start to whirl in agitation. Something just happened.


	2. titanium and obsidian

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cryptor encounters the ninja and has some really confusing memories. The ninja don’t know what’s going on either.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would ask if any of you can distinguish his memories from Zane’s but even I get confused. You’re welcome to try though.

He wakes to white walls and a black ceiling. He doesn’t know who he is but as soon as the words leave his mouth, his memory clicks. 

_Your name is Cryptor. You are a Nindroid, meant to follow the orders of Cyrus Borg, your creator. Protect the Realm Crystal._

The Realm Crystal. He doesn’t know how he knows but it’s the connection through all sixteen realms. And his job is to protect it. 

Almost robotically, he rises to his feet and leaves the room, coming into a place that is swarming with others like him except they vary slightly from his own design. All, like him, are clad in white and purple gis. 

A hologram of a man’s face flickers into existence in front of him, and he looks so familiar that his name pops into Cryptor’s head automatically. _Cyrus Borg._  

“Hello General Cryptor,” he says with a small smile that looks a bit sad. “I trust you know everything already.”

He’s about to say that he doesn’t know but the words suddenly come into his memory as if they’ve been imprinted there. “Yes,” he says. 

“Good.” Borg’s face dissolves, and Cryptor is left wondering if he missed something in that conversation. 

Then something strange happens. He's suddenly cold, despite his processors not set to sense temperature, and ice surrounds his vision. There's a bright blue dragon in front of him, and he barely has time to process it before it vanishes.

First day since activation and he's already seeing things.

—

(There’s an incident with a djinn involving the Realm Crystal, but Cryptor forgets exactly what happened.)

—

He doesn't want to stay here anymore, despite his orders. The Realm Crystal is safe, along with the army of nindroids set on guarding it. It's dull and boring guarding something no one really wants. And as far as he knows, no other nindroid feels the same as he does. Borg, who always knows everything the nindroids do before they do it hasn't contacted him in query of his thoughts yet, so Cryptor assumes he can go.

So he does.

Hiroshi's Labyrinth is a place that seems familiar but he can't place exactly why. Maybe because it's a jungle. He discards his hood as he passes through, using his laser optic to incinerate it, making sure none of the sparks catch onto the trees. He doesn't want any more attention than he should, and since most people likely know of Cyrus Borg, he doesn't want to make any trouble for his creator. An image of a guy with a snake on his head passes through his mind and Cryptor shakes it off. He can't get distracted; he wants to see the world.

New Ninjago City is a maze of buildings, technology, and people. He gets some pretty strange looks from others, though he's pretty sure it's because he's a nindroid. Some kid points to him, and yelps, "It's evil Zane!" and everyone scatters.

Cryptor isn't sure what had happened, but the name 'Zane' rings a bell. It also brings a wave of memories: ice forming over golden spikes, a robot girl in purple clothes, a dungeon with chains strapped to his wrists. Staggering slightly, he has to brace himself against a street pole. Where did those memories come from? He only had been activated a few month ago and as far as he knew, was set to guard the Realm Crystal. So what did 'Zane' have to do with anything? Who is Zane?

A last name comes to the front of his mind, one that sounds familiar, like everything that has happened since his activation. Julien. Zane Julien. Someone he knew, perhaps? Someone his creator knew? As far as he was concerned, and what Borg had told him, Borg only kept to himself and had few friends, which ruled out the friends option.

This is not the most confusing part of his revelation, however. He can hear the crowd screaming, scattering as the child screams, "evil Zane!" and he feels a strong, immensely strong feeling of hatred for this 'Zane' person, though it disappears after a second.

He doesn't know why. Does Borg have something to do with this? How is he an 'evil Zane'?

Was it even possible for a nindroid to have amnesia?

Everywhere he goes, people scatter. He's starting to wonder why. He's an 'evil Zane' so this Zane person must be a good person. So does that make him a bad person? Is Borg a bad person? If he's evil, then that explains why he hates Zane, if Zane is good.

"I don't want to be evil," he says aloud, but there's no one around to hear it.

—

Coming back to New Ninjago City, Zane and his friends hear from a panicked civilian as they rush past: "The Nindroids are back!"

“The Nindroids are back?" Jay repeats, looking a bit concerned. "What does that mean?"

“It means the Nindroids are back, Jay," Nya tells him, barely concealing a tone of exasperation.

“All of them?" Zane finds that hard to believe. It's been a long time since he's seen any, other than Pixal.

Jay shrugs. "If all of them were, we'd be seeing a lot more chaos, just saying."

"That is true," Zane muses. "I'm going to check it out."

He darts off down the street, not even checking to see if his friends are following.

He doesn't know what he would do if the Nindroid Army has returned. He knows how to subdue one, but an army of them has proven before to be too much for the ninja to handle. His mind conjures up all the possible scenarios that could happen if his clones had resurfaced, despite serous reprogramming and he almost wants to turn around and go back before he remembers his duty.

So he's surprised when he finds a rather confused looking Cryptor wandering around Main Street without his hood.

—

“Cryptor?"

His name startles him, especially since no one, as far as he knows, knows his name other than Borg. When he turns towards the source of the voice, he's met face to face with someone who looks almost exactly like him, but with a somewhat different hairstyle and significantly different outfit and synthetic skin.

On the second thought, the newcomer looks to be made entirely out of titanium.

“How do you know my name?" Instinct makes him jump to hostility, something that makes him question his 'evil' stature even more.

His lookalike looks a bit puzzled. "What do you mean? You're my clone, right?"

 _Clone?_ Cryptor has no memory of being cloned, and the words bring another one of those strange memories, this one of a man in a ridiculous helmet, summoning creatures of darkness, a man that looks like he's sitting on a mechanical spider at his side. It takes him a while to realize the newcomer is still staring at him.

“What do you mean?"

The lookalike opens his mouth to reply, but he is interrupted by a group of individuals dressed in brightly colored gis.

“Cryptor?" The one clad in blue says, and Cryptor can't process what's going on. Judging by the look in everyone else's eyes, they all recognize him. He makes eye contact with each of them, their names popping into his head without him realizing it, along with memories he doesn't remember experiencing -- as usual.

_Jay. Lightning crackling as a boy cloaked in glowing blue tendrils of electricity pushed against a roller coaster car with a girl inside, bringing it to a halt.  
_

_Kai. A boy summoning a whirling ball of flame that quickly grew into a dragon, surrounded by others.  
_

_Nya. A girl standing at the edge of a boat, raising her hands to the sky, the water mimicking her moves.  
_

_Cole. A boy using a scythe to split the ground in two, dividing a group of snakes in half.  
_

_Lloyd. A boy clad in gold rising above the ground to confront a large purple dragon, whose wings envelop the land with darkness.  
_

_And---_

“Cryptor, what's going on? Where's your army?" the original newcomer asks, and Cryptor's eyes (or the real one anyway) snap upwards to meet his lookalike's eyes and a memory so vividly strong nearly pushes him backwards.

_Zane. A boy opening up his chest to reveal inner workings that definitely weren't human, his friends gaping in astonishment._

“Are you Zane Julien?" he asks, irritated that he can't identify any of the people before him without delving into memories that weren't his.

Zane looks confused. "Yes. Do you not remember me?"

Cryptor figures he has nothing to lose and enough to gain to continue talking. "No, I just know your name and everyone else's here. Don't know why though."

“So you don't remember the Overlord?" the boy identified as Kai speaks up, looking a bit hostile with his raised weapon. "Or Cyrus Borg?"

Cyrus Borg. "He was my creator," Cryptor says slowly, the words having a funny feeling in his mouth like they weren't true. "And who's the Overlord?"

The boy noted as Jay gasps, a look of excitement crossing his face. "Wait, you don't remember anything?"

Cryptor frowns, but the more he thinks about it, the more he realizes that maybe Jay is onto something. He doesn't know why. Instead, he repeats the information Cyrus had programmed him with. "My name is Cryptor. I am a Nindroid, meant to follow orders by Cyrus Borg, my creator. I was supposed to protect the Realm Crystal," he adds as an afterthought.

“And that's all you know." the girl called Nya says, looking suspicious. "I mean, other than our names and all that."

He decides not to tell them about the weird memories he's been having. "Yes."

“Well, I guess since he didn't try to kill us on the spot, he's telling the truth," the boy named Lloyd says in a questioning tone.

“Why would I kill you on the spot?" And he honestly doesn't know this, but all the others are giving him such hostile and confused glares that he's pretty sure that he was evil some time. _Laughter followed by an image of a golden mass of something._ Which meant that Borg lied to him, but now isn't the time to think about that.

“Uh, because you're evil!" And there was Jay, confirming his hypothesis.

"I, okay." And he doesn't know how to respond to that.

“We can't leave him here," the boy identified as Cole says as if Cryptor isn't here. "He could kill someone."

“I'm pretty sure he's incapable of that right now," Nya replies. "Look," she says, turning to Cryptor. "Do you have a weapon?"

He reaches for the gun at his belt and everyone flinches.

“Drop it!" Jay screeches in panic and Cryptor obliges, letting the gun fall to the pavement with a loud clang. _A rasping voice filling the speakers of a tall tower._  

“Do you always react to weapons that way?" Cryptor asks, and Kai is the one who answers like it is obvious. "No, we're ninja. We just thought that you would shoot us because...you know..."

“Because I'm evil?"

Kai looks a bit sheepish. "Yeah."

Cryptor shrugs. He doesn’t want to be evil but he can’t change the past. He just wants to get out of the presence of these ninja and his supposed original design. _Lightning crackles as he shoves a girl backward with one hand, fending off a blade with the other._ He turns to leave but Zane calls him back. 

“Wait.”

He freezes. He knows something about these people at least. _Multicolored dragons soaring through the air._ They all have elemental powers. So if he disobeys them, it could be the last thing he ever does. _Purple snakes slithering though a desert._

“We’ll take you with us.”

—

“What, Zane, are you crazy?” Jay hisses, staring out of the corner of his eye at the confused nindroid. “We can’t take him with us; he tried to kill us for god’s sake!”

“He’s technically my brother,” Zane replies quietly. “And he has no memory. I don’t know if this is because he was reprogrammed or—”

“Look, Zane,” Lloyd starts. “It’s your decision to make but just know that if he tries to do anything that is relevant to our past run-ins with him, he needs to go.”

“So you’re saying we don’t remind him of his past,” Nya states, “and everything will be fine?”

“Hopefully,” Zane says before turning back to Cryptor who looks a bit apprehensive. 

“Cryptor, this is your choice. I won’t force you to do anything, I promise.” He suspects that his brother’s half scared half nervous look has something to do with him knowing about their elemental powers. He seems to know quite a bit about them in the past few minutes but nothing about himself. 

Cryptor pauses, an expression of thoughtfulness coming over his face before wincing. “I’ll come,” he says. “Only if you’ll help me find out who I am.”

Knowing full well that he's lying through his teeth, Zane nods. “I promise.”


	3. complications

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are revealed. Complicated stuff happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter....for now.

Zane knows they only have about thirty seconds to get outside before the Mechanic escapes.  One of the Nindroids, the one with half of its face smashed in, is still stumbling around the store.  The other followed the Mechanic outside.

"We need to get out there!" Zane tells Nya, who's struggling to free them from wire that conveniently wrapped around their legs.

"I know, just give me a minute!"

"We don't _have_ a minute!" The only way _he_ survived the Mechanic was because of Pixal but Cryptor had no memory of fighting close combat and he didn't have another AI helping him.

Nya, in desperation, draws her sword and snaps the wire in half.  They'd have to pay for it later.

"Go!"

Zane takes off, running between the doors and out of the mall, coming short to the Mechanic. Cryptor is lying immobile on the ground a few feet away and the second Nindroid is nowhere to be found. 

Attempting to make small talk until Nya arrives to help, Zane calls, "What is it exactly you want with Cryptor?"

The Mechanic grins.  "As I can't take your parts due to you electrocuting me, the next best thing is your clone. And your clone is a bit more advanced than you anyway, so it'd be easier to wire his stuff with the tech I already have."

"I can't let you take him apart," Zane says firmly, and he can see Pixal shaking her head at his cliche-like words.

The Mechanic grins.  "Touching, but I don't have any sympathies towards metal men."

There's a loud rumble, and the ground starts to shake.  

"It's water," Pixal says after analyzing the shock waves.  "Coming from the sewers."

"That means Nya is here," he realizes and as if on cue, the sewer grate nearby opens with a loud crash and Nya spirals through it, suspended on a wave of dirty water.

The Mechanic backs up, evidently weighing his options.  Apparently, Cryptor wasn't worth the trouble of drowning because he runs off.  The water falls back into the sewers with a splash and Nya closes the grating.

"That was gross," she says with a grimace.

"You actually weren't going to cover him in dirty water, were you?" Zane asks.

Nya shrugs.  "Depending on how far you were willing to go, I would have. Besides," she adds, wrinkling her nose, "that was pretty terrible what he did to you in Kryptarium Prison."

"What he _tried_ to do," Zane corrects her, and Nya rolls her eyes with a faint grin.

"Yeah, whatever."

\--

There's an old man standing in front of him.  He's wearing glasses. Cryptor feels like he should know who this guy is, but unlike the ninja, his name doesn't come to mind immediately.

"That's because this isn't reality," the man says with a smile.  "I'm glad to finally meet you, Cryptor."

"Who are you?" It's unsettling.  He knows him, _he does,_ yet he doesn't.

The old man's eyes crinkle up as he smiles again. "My name will come in time. Let's just say we know each other, albeit _distantly_."

Cryptor doesn't like this.  Taking a glance at his surroundings, he realizes he's in a forest in the middle of winter.  There's so much snow around that it makes the contrast between him and the whiteness of the area.  "Why am I here?"

"You had some questions as to why you keep having visions, yes?"

"Doesn't this count as a vision?"

The man pauses before laughing. "No, this doesn't. I suppose you could say this is a dream."

"Most of my dreams make as much sense as my visions," Cryptor says, confused.

"That's because they aren't your dreams.  They're memories."

It was one thing for himself to identify the strange visions as memories but it was another to have another person, who he barely knew, to state it outright. "Mine?"

The man shakes his head.  "No, but you already knew that." He hesitates before continuing. "They're Zane's."

"But why do I have his memories instead of mine?" Cryptor asks.  He doesn't know what the hell is going on but he intends to sort everything out sooner than later.

"Some of them are yours," The man admits. "Most of them are Zane's because he's been active longer than you. Don't you remember being made?"

Cryptor is about to say no, he doesn't, but there's something in the back of his mind that says yes. "Yes."

The man nods slowly.  "I do believe when Pixal copied Zane's structure to create you and the other nindroids, she set you apart in ways that even she didn't understand.  I think she accidentally somehow implemented part of Zane's memory drive into you. Since you had full understanding of yourself, I think you were able to suppress them as long as you had a direct purpose to distract you as well.  With the Overlord gone, you may have experienced some disorienting effects from the pent up memories."

"I-- still don't understand," Cryptor says.

The old man takes off his glasses. "I can reboot your memories, undo what Borg has done to you. He's a good man, but there's only so much he can repress.  Everything he did was with good intentions," he adds, as if Cryptor is going to track down the genius and kill him once he returns to reality.

Cryptor hesitates. He wants his memories back, but after seeing how gingerly the ninja sidestepped him, he wasn't so sure now.  Being evil is not something he wants to be remembered by, he knows that now. And with the level of distrust already skyrocketing, he doesn't want to increase their hostility.  "I don't know if I want my memories back," he says finally and the man nods in understanding.

"You are your own person -- or should I say nindroid -- Cryptor. The Overlord has no control over you and since Borg did reprogram you, your personality is forever altered. Even if you do regain your memories, you won't revert back to the ruthless killing machine you were before."

Cryptor thinks for a bit.  He supposes he could always shut himself down if things got to be too tricky to handle so he nods.  "Okay."

The man smiles and the scene around them starts fading away.  "Your brother is trying to turn you back on. When he reboots you, your memories will come back.  Say hi to him, won't you?"

As the man dissolves, Cryptor remembers one name before coming back to the present: _Dr. Julian._

_\--_

"What are you doing?" Pixal asks in barely concealed mounting horror. "Rebooting his systems will allow him to regain his memory."

"Is there any other way to undo what the Mechanic did to him?" Zane asks, and Pixal shakes her head.

"What _did_ he do to him?" Nya asks, poking Cryptor's prone body.  "He's shut down, but it seems different."

"The device the Mechanic used emits a electromagnetic pulse that basically forces a total shutdown on every electronic device nearby. He modified it to only conform to Cryptor's programming, and not any other nindroid," Pixal explains, and Nya nods, eyes darting to the discussed device, which was lying on the ground a few feet away.

"Mind if I break it?"

Zane looks surprised at the question but nods. "Go ahead."

The splintering snap is enough to make him cringe.

"Rebooting systems in five," Pixal says suddenly, watching Zane work on Cryptor's wiring.

"Four."

"Three."

"Two."

Zane wonders briefly if he had made a mistake in choosing this, but it was too late now.

"One."

There is a whirring sound and Cryptor's eye starts to glow again.  His laser optic twitches slightly and rotates one click before he sits up.

There's a period of silence.

"Do-do you remember everything?" Nya asks tentatively, like she's afraid Cryptor will explode at any given moment.

"Yes." His head swivels to face her and she backs away.

"It seems he has regained his memories," Pixal says.  Her expression is blank but Zane can sense her uneasiness.

There's a pause.

"Can we agree to not go shopping again?" Cryptor asks, using the stolen katanas to push himself to a standing position.

"Wait, you're not evil?" Nya asks. Zane shares her confusion.

Cryptor shrugs.  "I don't think I am. Hopefully."

Zane can feel a grin stretching across his face, despite Cryptor and his history together. "So you have your memories, but you aren't evil?"

"Your dad said I can choose who I want to be," Cryptor says, looking uncharacteristically content. "So I believe I can choose to be evil or not, if his logic is proven correct."

"Oh my god, he even talks like you now," Nya giggles.

"Julien talked to you? How?" Zane asks. "What did he say?"

"He said to tell you he said hi," Cryptor responds, but the tone in his voice indicates there's a lot more than he's revealing at the moment.

Nya looks dissatisfied at his answer as well, but says nothing about it.

_[You want to hug him,]_ Pixal says.

_'Yes. I do.'_

_[Well, I am not one to judge and I understand your sense of attachments as well.]_

_'Are you actually giving me permission to hug him?'_

_[I would not want you to get hurt.  It seems like he is truly not evil, so it is safe for you to trust him.]_

_'Do you trust him?'_

Pixal hesitates. _[No. Not yet.  He is armed and dangerous, but possesses no will to hurt you.  But his previous state makes him more suspicious. If you trust him, then that is good enough for me.  You were the one he tried to kill after all.]_

\--

Cryptor fully expected the distrustful look he was greeted with when he first was reactivated but was instead met with a hug that maybe had a bit more force than necessary, but a hug nevertheless.

"Never knew you cared so much about me," he says when they pull apart.

Zane blinks and then makes a face. "I could say the same to you. And if you still were evil, then maybe you'd be too busy shooting at me to notice."

"And if he was still evil, I would've kicked his butt," Nya puts in.

Cryptor raises a brow. "Would you? Last time we fought, I was winning."

Nya snorts. "Okay, you know what? I don't care what Kai and the others say.  You're my sparring partner from now on."

Cryptor dips his head slightly, an image of two siblings and a two colored dragon briefly worming its way through his vision, but he shakes it off.

He's going to make this -- whatever the opposite of evil is: good? -- work.  No matter what. Maybe it's what he was programmed to do, maybe it's his actual thoughts, but he honestly doesn't care anymore.

\--

It's a bit ironic that the room they end up giving him has white walls and a black ceiling.


End file.
